


It's All the Glory That I Bare

by SaintOfTheSinners



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Multi, OT3, PTSD, Sam Wilson is a Gift, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, reference to domestic violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 21:10:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5430881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintOfTheSinners/pseuds/SaintOfTheSinners
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy Lewis finally finds her soul mates after years of living freely. Through the power of Sam Wilson and the importance of hair care, new love is found and freedom is claimed. Who knew Coco Chanel would apply to Bucky Barnes? (Title taken from "Hair" by Lady Gaga).</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's All the Glory That I Bare

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all!  
> This is my contribution to the WinterShieldShock side of things, and is my first time writing it!  
> It's been an ot3 of mine for a while and I was struck by inspiration and wrote the entire thing in one sitting in Notes on my phone. I probably should be writing final essays of my other WIP (head over to that if you'd like), but this demanded to be written today. My proofreading skills are crap and I don't have a beta, so please forgive any minor errors. I hope you enjoy this one shot, and feel feel to tell me what you think in the comments below.   
> You can also come chill with me over at Tumblr (stucky-if-ya-nasty) if you'd like, I'd love to hear from you!  
> And away we go.......!

The universe really did have shit timing. The words themselves appeared when they were supposed to, but as far at meeting your soulmate went? Total crap.

Darcy was born with two lines, one scribbled under each breast.  
Clearly whoever they belonged to felt the need to mark their territory.

She knew they were older than her because she's heard the stories from her parents about seeing them when she was born, but she'd hoped that they weren't too much older.

Her best friend in High School was matched with a 47 year old Dean at their school. It didn't end well.  
After that, she read every study and theory published about why the universe would put two people together who were only doomed to fail. She needed to be informed. She needed to be prepared for her soul mates and ready for what they could throw at her.

***  
At 24, Darcy had no more illusions about soul mates. She could count on one hand the number of couples she's known with matching marks that actually went well together.  
When she was 19 she started volunteering at a home for women who were escaping domestic violence.

"Marks are not meant to be shackles.” That was her contribution to the effort. She spoke to hundreds of women about the importance of being selfish, and that marks only meant so much before you have to take your fate into your own hands. She swore she'd always be in control of her life; she didn't want to be swept up in soul mates. Was it a nice notion? Yes. But she felt no need to rush into finding her soul mates.  
She was content to wait. To live. To be Darcy.

***  
Finding a place with Jane was the best thing to ever happen to Darcy. All of the other students at Culver were idiots to not apply for her internship. It's brought so much into her life: best friends, a great home, and a job that she never would have found otherwise.

Pepper making her head of PR for Stark Industries and Liaison for the Avengers was a sucker-punch. The pay was insane, the benefits extreme, and she got to live in Avenger's Tower when she wasn't flitting around the world to keep things running smoothly. Her life was great. And it wasn't missing anything. So she still wasn't in a rush to meet her soul mates, but sometimes she would get scared that she'd be one of those cases where she'd meet her soul mates on her deathbed and never have any time to enjoy them. Even with these thoughts, she still wasn't rushing. Her wonderful life was enough.

***  
After the very messy, very public collapse of SHIELDRA Darcy was the busiest she'd been in her life, so she missed out on a lot. The additions to tower life had been overseen by her through emails, but she wasn't around enough to get to know the three new men.

Until she was.

***

She'd heard nothing but good things about Sam Wilson since he came into the Avengers' fold. He'd tirelessly accompanied Steve through the year-long search for his long lost love, and remained by their side as they targeted every remaining HYDRA base and burned every single one to the ground. Fuck their Head Analogy, they didn't stand a chance against the three of them with all the resources of Tony Stark supporting them.

When she met Sam it was after a pretty rough nightmare and she was prowling the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning for Bruce's green tea ice cream. He'd be cool with sharing. Probably.  
She'd just started digging in when he came in.

"You think Bruce'll be okay with you stealing his treat?" He plopped down next to her.

"I have an agreement with the Hulk if he shows up; we've been through a lot together. Plus, I need it more than he does right now." She continued scooping ice cream into her mouth, "You look like shit, rough night?"

Sam chuckled, "I guess you could say that."

"Wanna talk about it?" Darcy was always ready to lend a shoulder.

"You know thats usually my line."

"Again, I need it more than you do right now. Spill, what's going on in that head of yours at 2:45 AM on a Friday?"

"Bucky."

She blew out a breath and pushed the ice cream to him, "Okay, you totally need this more."

He took it and twirled the spoon around the carton, "Yeah, seems like it....He just regresses so quickly, you know? He's come so far and made so much progress, then BAM. He's back in his own personal hell."

A silence fell over the kitchen.

"I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds here, but I think you need to get Bucky to cut his hair."

He scoffed slightly, "His hair? You wanna give me some more to work with?"

"Okay, hear me out?" He nodded. "When I worked at a domestic violence crisis center, a lot of the women kept falling back into their old negative habits, flashing back to their abuse. And then one day I came to the center and offered up my hair stylist services; I gave a lot of them hair cuts, colors, new styles. I didn't really think anything of it. But then weeks later there was a huge difference in their progress, in their growth, in their healing. I asked a couple of them about it, and they said that the feeling of their hair whipping across their face, rubbing the back of their neck, ticking their ears, or getting caught in their lipgloss would take them back to the situations they were trying to escape.  
It's the little triggers that can blow everything to pieces.  
I'm not an expert, and I don't have a degree or anything, hell, those women moving along better after their haircuts could have been a big fluke, but I think it's worth a shot. It couldn't hurt right? I'd say just talk to him about it. See what he says."

She tapped her fingers on the table for a moment, "I'm gonna head off now, I might as well get some work done while I'm awake," she stood, stretched, and patted him on the shoulder, "You're doing a good job Sam. I'm proud of you for being so strong for everyone. But if you need me, I'm here. Also, congrats on your soulmate," she smirked, "Natasha is quite the handful."

Sam looked shocked for a second before grinning at her, "I'm a lucky sucker. See ya around Darcy."

Sam lingered in the kitchen long after Darcy left, "Mr. Wilson, Mr. Rogers is inquiring as to whether or not you will be joining him and Mr. Barnes on their morning run."

"Tell 'em I'll be right there." Running might be as good a time as any to broach the hair subject.

***  
Darcy was off to Atlanta the night after her talk with Sam, but her effects were still felt in the tower while she was gone.

Since his conversation with Darcy, he'd been talking about hair nonstop with Steve and Bucky. It was like a tug of war with style choices.  
Bucky didn't trust anyone around his head with clippers or scissors and hated the idea of cutting his hair, but Steve was absolutely on board with Bucky getting the same haircut he had back in the 40s.

He didn't see the point really. And Sam still refused to tell him where he even got the idea from. He'd always just smile and say "A friend." Bucky didn't like the sound of that. Why should he trust someone who he didn't even know? It wasn't right.

***  
Bucky managed to slip out of bed and into the Avengers' common room without waking Steve; he considered it a victory. He'd had another nightmare. This time he hadn't pulled Steve out of the river, just watched him float away in the cold water and sink to the bottom. He felt sick. 

He stared blankly at the TV screen, barely even registering the men and women frantically trying to put food on plates for the judges. He saw a figure out of the corner of his eye sit down and hug a pillow to her chest. 

She was pretty. 

No. 

She was gorgeous. 

Long dark hair, thick eyelashes, bright blue eyes, and curves that you could spent a lifetime mapping out. 

He couldn't breathe. 

He didn’t want to scare her off. 

She must’ve belonged in the tower; there were a lot of people he had yet to meet. He just held his tongue as he observed her out of the corner of his eye. 

“‘A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life’ Coco Chanel said it. You know, gender is a social construct anyways, so I think this can suit you just fine. You need to free yourself; you might be surprised at what you find.” She didn’t even look at him when she spoke. She didn’t see his shocked expression to notice when he reached back with his hand to rub his fingers over the back of his neck where his words were tingling; not Stevie’s words, her words. He finally found her. 

Without noticing Bucky’s personal moment, she reached over and grabbed his metal hand, the tool of so much suffering, and gave it a squeeze. Then she simply stood, gave him a small smile and left the room. 

He let out a shaky breath. He needed to tell Steve. 

***

Bucky didn’t think of his second set of words for a very long time. He knows they must have shown up while he was with HYDRA because he didn't have them before the fall; he didn’t even know about them until Steve brought them up after they reunited. (His handlers obviously didn't think it was important enough to tell their Asset.) He told him that he had a second set of words after he came out of the ice, and needed the reassurance that Bucky had them too. 

They were both sort of angry about it. It had always been just Bucky and Steve: ‘till the end of the line. Just the two of them. They didn’t need anyone else to be happy. 

They both mutually decided that they wouldn’t actively seek out their third, and if they met them and decided they didn’t want them, then they’d just keep it to themselves and go back to being just Bucky and Steve. But now Bucky knew. 

He didn’t know her, not really, he didn't even know her name yet, but god did he want her. Her words finally made sense, she was trying to heal him before even meeting him. He didn’t deserve her. But god did he want her. 

After meeting her Bucky went straight back to Steve and shook him awake. 

“Buck! What happened, are you okay? You’re safe in Avengers’ Tower. I’m Steve, I love you, we’re soul mates.” He immediately went into nurture mode, trying to hold Bucky to his chest. 

Bucky didn't want to be held, “I found her.”

“Buck, who?”

“Her,” he reached down and gripped Steve’s hipbone where his second set of words resided as a perfect mirror of Bucky’s, “She’s here.” 

Steve’s eyes widened as he gripped Bucky’s hand, “You met her? Who is she? What did you say to her?” 

“I did, she just sat next to me on the couch. I don’t know who she is though, I didn’t get her name. I didn’t get anything; I just sat there like a putz.” 

Steve wrapped his arms around Bucky’s shoulders and dragged him onto his chest on the bed, “So what do we do now? She doesn’t even know she’s ours, and we don't know who she is. I know we tales about this, but that was before you met her. Do you want to avoid her and make it on our own? Or…?”

Bucky was silent for a moment before he whispered, “I want her. Stevie, I didn’t feel like anything was missing before, this was already perfect for me ya know, but now that I’ve met her. We can be even more happy.” 

Steve tilted his soulmate’s head towards his own before laying a sweet kiss on his lips, “Well then we’ll go get her. First thing in the morning we’ll prowl the tower and go get our best girl.” 

Bucky fell asleep dreaming about dark curls sprawled across his chest. 

***   
Unfortunately for the two super soldiers, their ‘first thing in the morning’ plan didn’t pan out at all. After asking JARVIS who the mystery girl was, they found out that she’d been sent to London. For two weeks. 

As much as they wanted to hop onto a jet and follow her, they knew that they needed to remain at the tower, just in case. All they had to do was wait two weeks. 

***

Two weeks became four, and when she finally came back to the tower they missed her at every chance they got. 

First they got called away to South America to destroy an AIM headquarters.   
Then she got pneumonia.   
Then she was sent to a conference in Sweden.   
Then they were shipped off to New Zealand so the Avengers could deal with an anti-mutant group who was arranging a mass genocide. 

***  
Before they knew it, it had been three and a half months since Bucky talked to her and they were getting desperate. 

Bucky still hadn’t cut his hair. His progress was still stunted. 

He got an idea. 

“Sam, I’m ready to cut my hair.”

Sam smiled, pleased with his decision, “Alright man, we can head to my barber, he’ll fix you up and give you-“

“Not a barber. The girl. Darcy.” Bucky stared the other man down and saw the confusion coloring his features. 

“Since when do you know Darcy? Or that she could even cut hair?” Bucky said nothing and turned to walk from the room. 

“2:30 today; the bathroom on Steve’s floor.”

“Fine, I guess,” Bucky left; Sam shook his head, “I swear I need a vacation.”

***

True to his word, Sam relayed the message to Darcy and she was ready with all of her equipment in Captain America and the Winter Soldier’s bathroom at 2:30. 

Bucky had been imagining her every day since they met on the couch, but his thoughts had nothing on the real thing. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. His chest ached. He heard Steve let out a heavy breath next to him. He could tell that Steve saw exactly what he did. 

“I’m kind of surprised you asked me to do this, honestly. You don’t even know me well enough to like me, let alone trust me with sharp objects.” She held the salon cape in her hands and smiled warmly at the both of them. 

“I don’t have to like you to trust you.” 

She dropped the cape. She’d already spoken to him; he must have felt it on the couch.   
He said her words; they tingled under her bra. 

She focused on him, “You know, growing up with those words almost gave me a complex.” She rebounded quickly and bent to retrieve her cape. 

Steve beat her to it, “He’s usually a lot better with women. I’m sorry, I must have rubbed off on him a bit.” He handed her back the cape. 

She muttered, “Oh I’m sure you’ve rubbed off on him plenty.” She slapped her hand over her mouth as Steve felt her words on him come to life on his hip. 

“Please tell me those aren't the first words I’ve said to you.” She was blushing bright red and looked back and forth between the two of them. 

Bucky smirked, “At least you're not wrong,” he walked over and wrapped an arm around each of his soul mates’ waists, “So how’s about we go get to know each other a little better?” 

Darcy just shook her head and unwound herself from him and through the cape over his shoulders, “Nuh-uh Bucko, you’re getting a hair cut right now.” She shoved him into the chair. 

“Doll, this was only a ploy so Stevie and I could get you around us.” He looked to Steve for help, and only got a shrug in response. 

Darcy knelt down and leveled a stare into his eyes, “James. You need this. If you really don’t want this, I’ll pack up and stop, but you’ve at least gotta tell me why.” 

He wanted to lie to her, but she was so damn perfect. He mumbled something unintelligible. 

“What was that?”

Bucky sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, “I said: I’m not the same guy anymore. I’m never gonna be the same Bucky from before the fall and I can’t look that way again with that same haircut that Steve loves so much and pretend that nothing has changed.” 

Steve stepped forward and gripped his hand, “Buck, I wasn’t trying to push that on you. I love you right now. I don’t care what your hair looks like, I just thought that was a handsome look on you.” He brushed a kiss over his knuckles. 

“Well Bucky, what if I give you something completely new. No blast from the past hair and no HYRDA hair. Something for the James Barnes of today.” She brushed the hair off of his forehead. 

He licked his lips and nodded, “Yeah, I think I’d like that.” 

She grinned, “Good, now Steve get out of here. I’ve got a masterpiece to create.” She playfully swatted him out of the bathroom and got to work setting Bucky free. 

They talked very little as she cut his hair. Mostly exchanging encouraging glances as she chopped and snipped and buzzed. Occasionally, he would tense up when the scissors got to close to his face, and she’d back off and give him a minute while rubbing the back of his neck. 

When she was finally done washing, cutting, and drying she called Steve in and turned Bucky to face the mirror. 

“Bucky Barnes, 2.0” She beamed at him and Steve. 

He could hardly believe it. He looked completely different than he ever had before, and yet felt more like himself than he had in decades. 

The top was left long and shaggy, long enough to tie back on missions, the sides were shorter, not even brushing the tops of his ears or his collar. It was perfect for him: just like her. 

“You look amazing Buck.” Steve dragged his fingers across his scalp and through the newly cut hair on his head. 

Bucky turned and wrapped his arms around his two soul mates and felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. 

***

Darcy’s soul mates were old as hell and they didn’t come with a guarantee.   
But it was okay, there was no need to rush.   
Turns out the universe doesn’t have too shitty of timing.


End file.
